How The US Can Learn from the Three Mile Island Accident

On March 28 1979, a nuclear reactor on Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, failed. The reactors failure led to massive debate among U.S. government officials and vastly changed the climate for nuclear power in North America. For several decades, post-1979, fewer than one nuclear reactor was approved for construction and a promising source of energy nearly died out in every U.S. state.
Though no hard details could be found, one researcher suggested that as a result of radiation pollution near Three Mile Island, some three hundred plus residents contracted fatal cancers, which is believed to be from nuclear radiation and related cell mutation. Though, notwithstanding potential human life lost, a large portion of the state of Pennsylvania spent decades bathed in levels of radiation that one source quoted as being roughly the amount a person experiences for a medical X-ray.
Regardless of the seemingly small casualties (no deaths reported, but many claimed as dependent on the … continue reading

History And Controversy Of Nuclear Power Plants

Nuclear power has always been contentious due to its very nature. Uranium creates a high burst of energy as it decays, and that energy can be captured for power use. However, it also creates a radioactive waste that must be dealt with, and the possibility of nuclear accidents shadows all of the potential good that they may do. Because of this, there have been few reactors built, and all 100 were built built between 1974 and 1977. Since then, four have been decommissioned due to age, while there have been plans to build five more to replace them. As countries look for means to replace failing petroleum reserves, nuclear power plants may be worth taking a looking at.
The possibilities of nuclear power were first debated even as early as 1938. Project Manhattan showed that there was a lot of potential power in splitting the atom for power. However, there were problems capturing that power, making it ideal at first for only weapons. There were additional issues as radiation had … continue reading